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Part III

REPORT OF THE BUREAU OF WORKMEN'S

COMPENSATION

(1) REPORT OF THE SECOND DEPUTY COMMIS

SIONER

(IN CHARGE OF BUREAU OF WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION)

To the Industrial Commission:

In compliance with the requirements of the Compensation Law and of the Labor Law, this report of the Bureau of Workmen's Compensation is made and submitted. It covers the period of the calendar year 1915 with tables that make it also a report for the last nine months of the fiscal year ending September 30, 1915.

The year has been eventful of change. At its beginning the Workmen's Compensation Commission, a separate state department, was charged with the administration of the Workmen's Compensation Law which became effective July 1, 1914. The Legislature radically amended said law, which amendments became effective April 1, and thereafter virtually two laws have been in operation; the first as affecting all cases of injury arising prior to April first, and the present law as affecting all cases after said date.

The Legislature also abolished the Workmen's Compensation. Commission as a separate state department and merged its functions with those of the Department of Labor under a new Department of Labor to be administered by the State Industrial Commission; and that which was a department at the beginning of the year became a bureau of the new Department of Labor when the Industrial Commission Law became effective on June first.

Upon assuming office the Industrial Commission retained, with the exception of the changes hereinafter noted, the organization plan and personnel much as it found it, and energetically assumed at once a vigorous and sympathetic administration of the Workmen's Compensation Law.

The principal changes accomplished in the amendment of the law affected the method of making claims and of paying awards.

Under the first law all claims were made directly to the Commission which, after it had passed upon them, collected from the insurance carriers the awards as made and paid out said awards according to the provisions of the law. Under the amended law claims are first filed directly with employers with the right of employers and employees to reach an agreement with each other respecting the amount of awards to be paid. Only in the event of neglect or failure to reach such agreements may the claim thereafter be filed with the Commission as under the old law. In either agreement or direct claim cases employers have the right to make payments in advance of awards, and, if awards are subsequently made, to have such payments properly credited thereon.

If agreements are entered into, the Commission examines carefully such agreements and, if the terms thereof are strictly in accordance with law, approves same, which approvals constitute awards. In claims filed directly with the Commission, awards are made as they were made under the old law. In all cases when awards are made it is incumbent upon employers to pay the same directly.

It will be seen from the foregoing that so radical a change in the law necessitated sweeping changes in Bureau methods, forms, notices, division of work, etc. Indeed, the Bureau had to accommodate itself to what amounts to five different classes as follows: Cases arising under the first law; and under the new law agreement cases with advance payments; agreement cases without advance payments; direct claim cases with advance payments, and direct claim cases without advance payments. However, by following the legislative proceedings and finally anticipating the legislation about to be enacted, forms and system were prepared in advance of the adoption of the amendments and the Bureau swerved and swept on without much loss of time; but as might have been expected at the outset, with a marked increase of labor. The new law with its changes required to be explained.

At Albany the Bureau's offices were removed into the new wing of the capitol, being consolidated with the other bureaus of the Labor Department there to the decided advantage of the work in hand.

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